From the Florida Courier:
Coming soon: ‘Betty Wright the Movie’
BY STARLA VAUGHNS CHERIN
FLORIDA COURIER
With her new album coming out, legendary soul singer Betty Wright decided to put in a call to movie mogul Tyler Perry.
After all, her new album is called "Betty Wright The Movie – All She Wrote.’’ The artistry and verve of the storyteller or griot, as Wright calls herself, still burns hot more than 30 years after her chart topper, "Clean Up Woman."
"I call the album "Betty Wright The Movie – All She Wrote" because each song is really like a movie. I’m trying to narrow it down to 14 songs. Everything we do is very vivid. That’s why I put a feeler out to Tyler,’’ she told the Florida Courier.
Although it’s been more than 30 years since classic soul hits "Clean Up Woman" and "Tonight is the Night,’’ Wright still is very involved in the music business.
Royal treatment outside of U.S.
She has performed and recorded in London, Argentina and West Africa aswell as in the States, making music in Los Angeles with Sir Tom Jones andworking with young artists such as English soul/R&B singer Joss Stone. Wright also received rave reviews for her contribution to Angie Stone’s "Baby" and "That Kind of Love" singles from the 2007 album "The Art of Love and War."
On Sept. 19, "An Evening with Betty Wright’’ will pay tribute to the Grammy Award-winning singer who sometimes is an unsung hero in her own backyard. Wright lives in Miami, her hometown.
"We’ll be doing Betty right," said close friend Sandra "Lady D’’ Dixon, who organized the 7:30 p.m. event to be held at the Orange County Convention Center’s Linda Chapin Theatre – West Concourse. "I was surprised this hadn’t been done, especially for a person like Betty. I know personally all the philanthropic work Betty does in her ministries. She is selfless.
"Her gifts and talents have taken her across international waters before kings and queens yet she remains humble and without respect of persons. In Africa when she visits, they bow down to her like she’s a God and she says ‘Ooh, don’t do that. You have this twisted.’ He is to be bowed down in reverence to, not me. Other people’s needs are important to her in both her profession and spiritual walk."
Wright’s children will perform
Guests at the tribute will include Bishop Noel Jones of Los Angeles’ City of Refuge. Four of her siblings also will be there.
Wright’s children Aisha, Patrice, Chaka and Asher will take part by performing a medley of her greatest hits. Aisha will open and Asher will close because, according to Dixon, "when she sings it’s over. Church will have to be out when Asher finishes."
Wright insists that she isn’t the best singer in her family who were performing together as children in a gospel group called the Echoes of Joy.
The legacy of music started with Wright’s grandmother Bessie and her mother, Rosa Lee, one of the first African American-women with her own record label. "My mother played guitar, arranged music and recorded on her own label.
"I don’t think I’m anywhere near the best singer in my family," Wright told the Florida Courier. "Maybe the most anointed because when your gift has carried you this far, I don’t think it’s me doing it. For me, it’s all about the words. God gave me the gift of being a songwriter. When I approach singing, I do it as a means to carry a song. I am not at all a vocal gymnast."
Singing career wasn’t goal
Growing up the baby of seven children, Wright said she loved to play baseball and probably would have been in professional women’s sports, a physical education teacher or a lawyer.
"If they were putting as much money in women’s sports then as they are now, there probably wouldn’t have been a ‘Clean Up Woman.’ Everyone in my family could sing so singing was not a goal of mine."
Yet right from the beginning, she could pick a winner. As a teen she discovered Gwen and George McCrae and got them signed to Henry Stone’s Alston Records. The two garnered solo hits "Rockin Chair" for Gwen and "Rock Your Baby," which earned George a Grammy nomination as one of the first hits of the disco era selling 11 million copies worldwide.
Son’s death led to MOST
Wright’s still working with up-and-coming songwriters from age eight to 51 in a program she calls the Mountain of Song Today, MOST.
Although it’s Wright’s nature to help others, the start of MOST was a result of the fatal shooting of son Patrick in 2006. She transformed the lower level of her home into recording suites and works each Thursday coaching students and helping them realize their dreams.
"I was partially inspired by the fact Patrick was so talented and I realized people are dying every day with their dreams unanswered. So much of my life has been spent being a fan of other artists," Wright noted. "Now I’m working on perfecting the gift of songwriters. We have about four or five studios running most of the time. They get a break because of the amount of money studios charge.
"It’s a daunting task that I often ask ‘why me?’ Then I answer, ‘why not me?’ You are in Miami. A cornucopia of culture, where you have Cuban, Haitian, Jamaican, Dominican, African, Anglo Saxon and Italian all in one room together to make music.
Music for multiple TV shows
"Some barely speak English, but that doesn’t matter because regardless of what happens we still make the most awesome music. They fight to get their point across, but it always works out.
"We poll the room for what we think should go on or what type of assignments they’ll get. If a song requires two writers or a solo, we put their numbers in a hat, shake it up for who gets to do what. It used to take them three hours to write a song – now it’s taking one hour and 30 minutes.
"They have to audition to get in and definitely have to be gifted. Some are prodigies, real contenders and are picked up by other companies because their skills are in demand. We aren’t marketing it yet, but we have 15 seasons worth of TV shows. That’s 13 shows a season times 15 years. We are producing conscious music for conscious people and for unconscious people because what we need to do is wake them up," Wright added.
‘We need some fresh meat’
Wright laments that the art of storytelling in music today has been lost. "I write stories that happen to rhyme. The record industry has put out so many songs that sound like other songs. Everyone wants to be like Beyonce or Mary J. (Blige). Some can really sing, but the producers have them all sound the same. We need some fresh meat."
The music industries’ lockdown on the types of music heard over the airwaves and control of artistic license has always been a sore spot for Wright. She’s no stranger to fighting for her share when artists sample her work and for the right to be paid when her music is heard over the airwaves.
When R&B group Color Me Badd released its hit, "I Wanna Sex You Up" in 1991, it generated controversy because the sample from "Tonight is the Night" had not been cleared. Wright took the band to court and was awarded 35 percent of royalties for writing the song.
Wright working on album tour
Today, radio stations are fighting against paying royalties to some older artists for music played on the stations, stating it will cost them too much money. But Wright maintains that they wouldn’t have a job if it weren’t for the artists.
"People are very misinformed. Everywhere in the world pays royalties to artist when songs are played on the radio except America. They say it will make radio stations go broke for having to pay it and that is not true. The deejay goes to work and gets a salary, but we don’t. There would be no need to go without music to play."
For those who want to see Wright on stage again, she’s working on it. She will finalize her tour schedule for the new album in October. She’s also working on a video for the single "Go" from the new album. "I’m sending the song ‘Go’ out to all the people who have endured for far too long things they shouldn’t have endured," Wright explained.
"This is a fulfillment of a legacy that my children are carrying on. "I think my son’s death was one of the most spiritual things that have ever happened to me. I experienced the real power of God. How he did not let me go insane. I could still be the organizer, the protector and the child of God I am."
For more information about the tribute, contact JEBA Media Group at 305-835-0321 or 954-445-3779. E-mail inquiries:
Tribute2Bettywright@yahoo.com. Tickets are $21 and $26, and are available through TicketMaster or the Orange County Convention Center box office.
